Biggest issue will be AA's. As a purist Vamp you're unlikely to have any resists or DR so curse will have little impact on you, plus you're immune to the mana burn and poison of the Thrall monster. Won't be easy (vampire generally doesn't do purist well, and CO is a hard dungeon) but I really don't see it being any worse than using a purist Monk here.

Monks can worship gods. You don't think that makes a difference? They can also regen normally, which is a huge deal since shades are everywhere.

The mechanics of the vampire make CO an absolutely miserable dungeon. The closest I've come to winning was killing the Curse Shade by using absolutely every resource available, including every low level monster and potion, and having like 18 stacks of curse by the time I was done with that. The dragon was not even an option at that point.

First try. It was a tough run, but not particularly notable among class/dungeon mismatches. This is definitely comparable to purist Monk on Cursed Oasis, or purist Berserker in Slime Pits. Doable but difficult runs that may need a bit of scumming. Don't know what you're complaining about here.

I had to choose between Parched and Unstoppable badges at the end, as I had a level 9 and level 8 AA left on the field with about 5 layers of DP each when I ran out of resources. I decided to go for parched.

I got a bit lucky with subdungeon (though a vampire cannot properly leverage zombie money, it was still five extra blood pools and a bit extra cash) and glyph finds (had GETINDARE and HALPMEH, pretty much perfect for a vampire) but my shops were barren and my best find was a bloody sigil. Even with the gold from zombie money to facilitate extra CP purchases, I only ended up with 5 stacks of lifesteal in the end (~500 CP). Top-level was fully-explored by the time I was level 5 and I began the takedown on the Shade boss at that time.

I've also got to saying killing that level 5 Thrall was a mistake; I could have drained him repeatedly at higher levels, but because I took him down early that was not possible.

I keep getting tons of AAs and no good leveling opportunities. I think I've had to level off of 1s every run except for once (out of about 6 runs). I tend to have mostly bandits as popcorn, so constantly stuck in the cursed realm (and no possibility to win without killing the Curse Shade). The shades always blink into the fog of war. Almost no enemies to drain for healing (only the dragonkin seem good for that either).

Best item I've found is a Fine Sword. No elite items. Occasionally something good like Platemail but no point picking that up here...

HALPMEH showed up in 2 runs, did not seem terribly useful as I kept getting drained and could not restore the mana. I converted it the 2nd time, as I figured more lifesteal would have been better. Actually spell casting in general seemed to be an unreliable strategy. GETINDARE is good; the one glyph I always held onto when I found it.

I can't even imagine how it's possible to get Feeling Parched doing this. lol

Sounds like you're entering curse world a little early. I explored about half the map before I attacked anything. You're a vampire, exploration means very little to you so explore and find some items in shops and some power-ups on the ground. Even if your shop items suck you want to start converting stuff. Four or five layers of lifesteal will make a huge difference.

Last but not least, when attacking animated armors make sure you explore between each attack so they can heal. If you attack an AA with 1 HP, you only steal 1 HP of damage. However, if you let it heal back up you can steal your maximum amount (just make sure you don't let it heal too much; just enough so that it still "dies" in one attack). Vampire is a little weird with how he interacts with AA's.

I can't even imagine how it's possible to get Feeling Parched doing this. lol

If one of those two remaining AA's had been a bandit, dragonspawn, or thrall I would have had unstoppable too!

Darvin wrote:Sounds like you're entering curse world a little early. I explored about half the map before I attacked anything. You're a vampire, exploration means very little to you so explore and find some items in shops and some power-ups on the ground. Even if your shop items suck you want to start converting stuff. Four or five layers of lifesteal will make a huge difference.

Last but not least, when attacking animated armors make sure you explore between each attack so they can heal. If you attack an AA with 1 HP, you only steal 1 HP of damage. However, if you let it heal back up you can steal your maximum amount (just make sure you don't let it heal too much; just enough so that it still "dies" in one attack). Vampire is a little weird with how he interacts with AA's.

Hmmm. Those are some good points that I overlooked.

Makes me think of the Alpha Vampire who revealed the entire map before doing anything if possible Actually, letting the enemy I'm attacking regen mid-fight is something I never even thought of for some reason.

FDru wrote:The closest I've come to winning was killing the Curse Shade by using absolutely every resource available, including every low level monster and potion, and having like 18 stacks of curse by the time I was done with that.

Do curse stacks matter if you kill the Curse Shade? Seemed like picking the dragon item up yanks you out of the curse world for good.

paplaukes wrote:Do curse stacks matter if you kill the Curse Shade? Seemed like picking the dragon item up yanks you out of the curse world for good.

You can stay out of the cursed area but you still keep the curse stacks. Doesn't matter if you don't have any resists, of course... but since the dragon boss loses the "Cursed" status when you kill the Curse Shade it's helpful to have resists for when you do decide to fight it.